This semester I took a cinema history course on independent cinema, which I have a passion for. During the course I started thinking about promotion of independent cinema and how social media can help filmmakers get their film distributed. So I decided to do some research. For this post I'm going to focus on the history of the term social media and the first use of independent cinema and social media.
The first time the phrase "social media" was published was by Tina Sharkey (the co-founder of iVillage, former SVP of AIM and Social Media, and now the head of BabyCenter.com) in 1997. She used the term to refer to the Internet as being community driven. The term was used loosely through the late 90's and early 2000's when chatrooms and AOL were extremely popular. Then in 2004 Chris Shipley (co-founder and Global Research Director for Guidewire Group) coined the term to focus on business. Social media now referred to user-generated content or consumer-generated media. It is believed that social media utilization is a driving factor in the idea that the current period in time will be defined as the Attention Age.
Social media is broken down into three components:
1. Concept (art, information, meme)
2. Media (physical, electronic, or verbal)
3. Social interface (intimate direct, community, engagement, social viral, electronic broadcast or syndication, or other physical media such as print)
These components work together to create many different forms such as, concepts and slogans, electronic media sharing, media campaigns, and print media to be redistributed. By understanding the basic concepts of social media, independent filmmakers can use the knowledge to create social media campaigns to try to get their film distributed. In my next post I will talk about The Blair Witch Project and how it was one of the first independent films to use a social media campaign and gain wide release.
Alix, I really enjoyed this post of yours! I have never really thought to question how exactly social media came about, and considering what a strong presence it now has in our society, I think learning a little bit about its history is important. I have to admit though, sometimes I wonder how it will ever possibly last forever? Obviously it seems to only be picking up speed over the past few years, even the past few months! But like I said before, I just wonder how it could ever possibly last. Social media is certainly trendy, but as everyone knows, trends come and go. What do you think? Given its history, do you think social media has the power to stay around forever by reinventing itself over and over? Or do you think it will eventually fade out, like many other trends?
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